"They will be made slaves," I said, "crawling and kneeling to men, and servingthem abjectly, and totally, in all ways."

Pumpkin shuddered.

"It is true, is it not?" I asked.

"Perhaps," mumbled Pumpkin. He did not raise his eyes. I saw that he fearedmanhood, and sex.

"Would you not like one so serving you?" I asked.

"No, no!" he cried, not raising his eyes. "No, no, no!"

The vehemence of his answer interested me. I looked about, at the otherWaniyanpi They did not meet my eyes, but looked down.

"Were there other survivors?" I asked Pumpkin.

He looked up at me, gratefully. "Two," he said, "but, it seems, one of them onlyfor a time."

"I do not understand," I said.

"A boy, a Dust Leg, I think," said Pumpkin. "He was a slave of the soldiers. Hewas left staked out, over there, on that hill. We are to keep him alive until weleave the field, and then leave him here, to die."

"That would be the lad, the young man, who was with the column, the slave, onecalled Urt," I said to Grunt.

Grunt shrugged. He did not know this. I had, to be sure, spoken more to myselfthan to him.

"Who is the other?" I asked.

"An adult woman," said Pumpkin, "one whom, I think, was also with the soldiers."

"Excellent!" I said. "Is she blond, and fair of body?"

"She is blond," said Pumpkin, "but we are not permitted to observe whether ornot she be fair of body."

"It would be the Lady Mira, of Venna," I said to Grunt. "Excellent! Excellent!"

"Do you know her?" asked Grunt "We met once, on the road," I said. "But our meeting, now, will be of adifferent sort." I laughed.

"What is wrong?" asked Grunt.

"Nothing," I said. I was pleased, first, that the Lady Mira lived. It ispleasant that such women live, particularly when they are put in collars andchains. Secondly it amused me that the fair agent's utility to Kurii had been,in this unexpected and charming fashion, so abruptly and conclusivelyterminated. Thirdly she could doubtless be persuaded, in one way or another, togive me a first-hand account of the battle, at least in so far as it had sweptin its courses about her.

"Where is she?" I asked Pumpkin.

"Over there, behind that wagon," said Pumpkin. "We put her there so that wewould not have to look at her."

I regarded the Waniyanpi. I wondered why they were as they were.

"Lift your skirts," I told them, "to your waists, quickly."

They obeyed, shamed.

"No," said Grunt. "They are not castrated. It is done through the mind, throughthe training, through the Teaching."

"Insidious," I said.

"Yes," said Grunt.

"You may lower your dresses," I told the Waniyanpi. Quickly they did so,smoothing them, blushing. I urged my kaiila toward the wagon, which Pumpkin hadindicated.

17 The Slave

"You! ' she cried, struggling to her feet.

I dismounted swiftly and easily, approaching her, from the kaiila.

"Why is your kaiila quirt drawn?" she asked.

I lashed her once, savagely, with the quirt, between the neck and shoulder, onthe left side. I did not see any point in wasting time with her. "Kneel," Isaid.

Swiftly she knelt, clumsily in the apparatus in which she had been confined. Shelooked up at me. There were tears, and wonder, in her eyes. It was the firsttime, perhaps, she had been thusly struck.

"You do not avert your eyes from me," she said.

"It would be difficult to do so," I admitted. I could no longer, then, pursue mybusiness in haste, as I had intended. Her loveliness, simply, did not permit it.

She was stunning. I stood before her, savoring her beauty.

"Please," she protested, tears in her eyes.

I walked slowly about her.

She tossed, her head, to throw her hair forward, over her breasts.

I took her hair on, and lifted it, with the quirt, and threw it again behind hershoulders. She shuddered as the leather touched her body.

Again I regarded her.

"How dare you look at me in that fashion?" she asked.

"You are beautiful," I explained.

"You struck me," she chided.

"Indeed," I said, "your beauty might be adequate even for that of a slave."

"Oh?" she said.

"Yes," I said. This was a high compliment, which I had paid to her.

"You struck me," she said.

I slapped the kaiila quirt in my palm. "Yes," I said.

"You struck me as though I might have been a kaiila, or an animal," she said.

"Yes," I sad…

"I am free!" she said.

"You do not appear to be free," I said. She knelt before me, stark, naked. Shewore an improvised girl-yoke. This consisted of a stout branch, about two inchesthick, and some five feet in length, drilled at the center and near theextremities. It fits behind the back of the girl's neck. A long, single thong ofrawhide fastens the girl in place. Her left wrist is thonged and then the thongis passed through the drilled aperture in the left end of the yoke. Her wrist ispulled tight to the yoke. The same thong is then taken behind the yoke andpassed through the center hole, whence, after having been knotted, to preventslippage to the left, and having been looped about the girl's neck, usually somefive times, and having been knotted again, to prevent slippage to the right, itis returned through the same hole, whence it is taken behind the yoke to thehole drilled at the right-hand extremity of the apparatus. It is passed throughthat hole and then, of course, is used to fasten the girl's right wrist inplace, tightly against the yoke. When this action is completed then, as you cansee, whole package is neatly tied. The knots near the throat in preventingslippage, serve two functions; they hold the girl's wrists against the yoke and,at the same time, prevent vent any undue stress from being placed on the throatbands. The function of the throat bands is to hold the girl's throat in theyoke, securely and perfectly, not to cause her discomfort, nor to strangle her.

Gorean men are not fools in tying women. Longer yokes, such as this,incidentally, are commonly used for marches.

Confined as she is, with her arms extended, a girl can exert almost no leverageto free herself. Smaller yokes, some two to two and a half feet in length,similarly constructed, can be used for other purposes, such as enjoying a girlin the furs. Afterwards she can always be kenneled or chained. A soft, braidedleather rope, a trade rope, cored with wire, some fifteen or twenty feet inlength, was looped some five times about the girl's left ankle, and tied, thencebeing run to the axle of the nearby wagon to which she was tethered. This is auseful sanitary provision as the girl, then, need not sit or lie too near to herown wastes. The wire coring in the rope, of course, tends to discourage theattempt to chew through the bond. Light chains, sheathed in silk, or satin orvelvet, incidentally, have this utility as well, as well as their intrinsicstrength, more than adequate for the securing of a female.

Three separate thongs, incidentally, two short and one long, are sometimes usedfor this type of securing of the female. In this way of doing things each wristis tied in the center of one of the short thongs. The two free ends of the shortthong are then taken back through the hole and, once through the hole, aresimply knotted, heavily. This knot cannot, of course, be drawn back through thesmall-drilled hole by the girl. Her wrists are thus held in place. One end ofthe longer thong is taken through the center aperture and is that thong is thenlooped about the girl's throat, usually, again, some five times, and thenreturned through the center aperture. Once through the aperture it is knottedtogether, heavily, with the other end of the thong. Again, of course, this knot,a heavy one, prevents the thongs from slipping back through the narrow aperture.